Mass shootings too common in America in recent decades; list of prior shootings

JERRY WOLFFE

Published
12:00 am EST, Friday, December 14, 2012

The nation was shocked when a University of Texas at Austin student and former Marine climbed to the top of the campus tower and shot and killed 16 and wounded 32 others in August 1966.

The tower massacre occurred shortly after Charles Joseph Whitman killed his wife and mother in their homes. He was finally shot and killed by two Austin police officers who broke through a barricade he had set up at the top of the 307-foot tower and killed him.

It was later determined Whitman had a glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor that contributed to his change in personality from an honor student to a mass killer.

With today's shooting spree in a Connecticut elementary school, the death toll at the hands of mass shooters continues to rise.

The mass shooting in a suburban Denver theater in July in Aurora, Colorado, is also one of the latest in a string of mass shootings since 1991 that have claimed 174 lives.

In the Aurora massacre which occurred in a theater showing, "The Dark Knight Rises," 12 were killed and nearly 50 were being treated, incomplete reports indicated. A 24-year-old suspect, James Holmes, was arrested and is charged with numerous counts of murder.

Interestingly, in 10 of the mass shootings in recent years, the gunman or gunmen committed suicide after the killings.

Experts admit there is little they can do to stop a well-planned skilled gunman from carrying out a plan of mass murder, especially if the gunman is willing to die.

Other mass slayings in recent years include:

o On Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012, two people killed in an Oregon mall as well as the shooter, Jacob Tyler Roberts, who killed himself.

o Aug. 5, 2012: A man kills six people and hurts three others, then killed himself, at the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin near Milwaukee.

o July 20, 2012: 12 people were killed after a gunman entered a movie theatre showing the premiere of the Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Returns."

o On Feb. 27, Thomas "T.J." Lane, 17, is accused of killing three students at Chardon High School in Ohio.

o Jan. 8, 2011: U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, 18 other people were shot during a public meeting near Tucson, Ariz. 6 die.

o March 21, 2005: 16-year-old student Jeffrey Weise killed nine people, including his grandfather and his grandfather's companion at home, and then five fellow students, a teacher and a security guard at Red Lake High School in Red Lake, Minnesota, before killing himself. Seven students were wounded.

o March 12, 2005: Terry Ratzmann, 44, gunned down members of his congregation as they worshipped at the Brookfield Sheraton in Brookfield, Wisconsin, slaying seven and wounding four before killing himself.

o July 29, 1999: Former day trader Mark Barton, 44, killed nine people in shootings at two Atlanta, Georgia, brokerage offices, then committed suicide.